The function of form in newspapers' political conflict coverage: TheNew York Times'shaping of expectations in the Bitburg controversy

Drawing on the example of President Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to the Bitburg war cemetery, this article argues that form, in the Burkean sense, can operate in a body of conflict coverage to shape expectations for subsequent developments in the controversy covered and to help judge the appropriateness of news "characters'" subsequent choices in the featured drama. The focus on a series of news repons, rather than individual articles, reveals the exercise of progressive and repetitive form in the agonistic dramas characteristic of conflict coverage. The analysis ultimately concludes that news narratives differ from fictional narratives. The news media are not held responsible for satisfying the expectations cultivated by the form of their news coverage and by the unique relationship between news narrators and news "characters." The study further suggests that an understanding of how Burkean form functions in conflict coverage potentially provides theoretical explanations of how some media agenda‐setting operates.